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The Winnipeg Jets have shifted longtime assistant Pascal Vincent from his post with the team to the coaching gig with the Manitoba Moose. Vincent, 44, was the QMJHL coach of the year in 2007-08.

Pascal Vincent has been a mainstay of the Jets since the franchise moved to Winnipeg from Atlanta, and now the 44-year-old Quebec native is turning his assistant coaching gig with the Jets into a spot as the bench boss for the Manitoba Moose.

The Jets announced Friday that Vincent has been named the AHL club’s eighth coach and second since the club returned to Manitoba from Newfoundland.

The position with the Moose opened up following the somewhat surprising release of Keith McCambridge following this past season. McCambridge’s contract was up, and the Jets announced they would not be renewing McCambridge’s contract following the 2015-16 season. Manitoba finished with the third-worst record in the AHL in 2015-16, but also had one of the youngest and most inexperienced rosters in the league. That’s not to mention that McCambridge lost starting goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to the big club early in the campaign.

It was expected the Moose would show significant improvement as early as next season regardless of the coach, though Vincent’s record with young players could help speed up the development process. McCambridge’s history had seen him coach only in the minor-professional ranks.

Before coming to the Jets organization, and before landing the gig with the Moose, Vincent spent 13 seasons coaching in the QMJHL, first as an assistant before having 12 successful seasons as a head coach.

As coach of the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, a post Vincent held for nine seasons, he got the team to at least the second round of the post-season three times. However, the team was never able to advance beyond that, and after nine seasons, Vincent moved on and landed with the Montreal Juniors. He spent three seasons in Montreal before coming to the NHL as an assistant with the Jets following a 46-12-10 season with the Juniors in 2010-11.

Vincent’s total record over his career in the QMJHL was 429-313-87. He won the Ron Lapointe Trophy as coach of the year in 2007-08, the year before leaving Cape Breton for Montreal.

With the Jets, Vincent was in charge of the struggling power play, which was the worst in the NHL in 2015-16. Winnipeg scored only 38 goals with the man advantage, tied with the Ottawa Senators for the fewest in the league, and the power play operated at a measly 14.8 percent.